Newport News man sentenced for prolific card-swiping operation
NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (WAVY) – A Newport News man has been sentenced on Friday to nine years and 11 months in prison for leading a prolific card-swiping operation that caused at least $1.5 million in losses.
Court documents reveal 29-year-old Damier Dorsey purchased account information for identity theft victims through the darknet with his co-conspirators. Dorsey was able to reencode the information from the victims onto credit and debit cards.
Dorsey utilized the altered cards in 2017 to purchase cartons of cigarettes that he would later resell to local businesses, according to officials.
Starting in 2018, Dorsey’s scheme evolved to purchasing other items for resale and purchasing lottery tickets in order to launder proceeds through the Virginia Lottery.
On April 14, 2018, Dorsey, along with his co-conspirators, purchased $2,716.06 of merchandise from Toys “R” Us in an attempt to resell the items on Facebook Marketplace. Later on that same day, Dorsey used the same card to withdrawal $300 from an ATM.
On June 27, 2018, Dorsey used a re-encoded card to purchase $200 worth of lottery tickets.
According to court documents, Dorsey and his co-conspirators were aspiring musicians, releasing music under the name “$wipaG@ng.” Dorsey can be seen in several of the music videos boasting about committing fraud and other criminal activities.
Dorsey and a co-conspirator were stopped by the Virginia State Police while driving on Aug. 2, 2018. During the stop, police were able to find a credit card embossing machine, multiple credit cards in various states of imprinting and over $23,000.
A search of Dorsey’s home resulted in enforcement recovering multiple re-encoded credit cards, magnetic strip cards without labels, a magnetic strip card reader and writer, lists of numbers, lottery tickets and W-2G tax forms for lottery winnings.
A co-conspirator of Dorsey estimated that she spent about $10,000 per week with Dorsey on re-encoded and re-embossed credit and debit cards.
Dorsey pleaded guilty on Sept. 11, 2023 to conspiracy to commit wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.
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